Irish phonology

Until the end of the 19th century, linguistic discussions of Irish focused either on the traditional grammar (issues like the inflection of nouns, verbs and adjectives) or on the historical development of sounds from Proto-Indo-European through Proto-Celtic to Old Irish. The first descriptive analysis of the phonology of an Irish dialect was , which was based on the author's fieldwork in the Aran Islands. This was followed by , a phonetic description of the dialect of Meenawannia near Glenties, County Donegal. is predominantly a historical account, but has some description of modern dialects as well. Alf Sommerfelt published early descriptions of Ulster dialects ( and for the village of Torr in Gweedore, , and for the now extinct dialect of South Armagh). The dialect of Dunquin on the Dingle Peninsula in Munster was described by . From 1944 to 1968 the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies published a series of monographs, each describing the phonology of one local dialect: for West Muskerry in County Cork (Ballyvourney, Coolea and vicinity), (first published 1945) for Cois Fhairrge in County Galway (Barna, Spiddal, Inverin and vicinity), for An Rinn in County Waterford, for Tourmakeady in County Mayo, for Teelin, County Donegal, for Erris in County Mayo. More recent descriptive phonology has been published by for Rosguill in northern Donegal, for Tangaveane and Commeen (also near Glenties), for Iorras Aithneach in Connemara (Kilkieran and vicinity) and for the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry. Research into the theoretical phonology of Irish began with , which follows the principles and practices of Chomsky and Halle's The Sound Pattern of English and which formed the basis of the phonology sections of . Dissertations examining Irish phonology from a theoretical point of view include , in optimality theory, and and in government phonology. ==Consonants==

Most dialects of Irish contain at a minimum the consonant phonemes shown in the following chart (see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols). The consonant is neither broad nor slender. On- and offglides Broad (velar or velarized) consonants have a noticeable velar offglide (; a very short vowel-like sound) before front vowels, which sounds like the English but without rounding. Thus ('nine') and ('way, manner') are pronounced and , respectively. This velar offglide is labialized (pronounced [w]) after labial consonants, so ('yellow') is pronounced . Similarly, slender (palatal or palatalised) consonants have a palatal offglide (; like English ) before back vowels, e.g. ('thick') is pronounced . When a broad consonant follows a front vowel, there is a very short vowel sound (called an onglide) just before the consonant, e.g. ('sell') is pronounced . Similarly, when a slender consonant follows a back vowel, there is an onglide before the consonant, e.g. ('place') is pronounced , ('drinking' gen.) is pronounced , ('understanding') is , and ('to us') is . These all are also a feature of certain Slavic languages such as Russian, as well as of Lithuanian. Allophones (written as ) has two basic allophones: the labiovelar approximant and the velarized voiced labiodental fricative . The distribution of these allophones varies from dialect to dialect. In Munster, generally only is found, and in Ulster generally only is found. In Connacht, is found word-initially before vowels (e.g. 'is') and in other positions (e.g. 'saint', 'autumn', and 'hurried'). The remaining labial fricatives are typically labiodental , but they as well as the fricative allophone of have bilabial allophones in many dialects; the distribution depends partly on environment (bilabials are more likely to be found adjacent to rounded vowels) and partly on the individual speaker. Most coronals are alveolar, except broad stops and approximants which are typically dental , and the slender fricative is typically postalveolar . may be realized as alveolo-palatal affricates in a number of dialects, including Tourmakeady, Erris, and Teelin. may be true palatals or palatovelars . has three allophones in most dialects: a palatal approximant before vowels (except ) and syllable-finally (e.g. 'nice', 'will be'); a voiced (post)palatal fricative before consonants (e.g. 'sun'); and an intermediate sound (with more frication than but less frication than ) before (e.g. 'straightened'). has the primary allophone , a palatalized postalveolar fricative. In many varieties, and alternate with under a variety of circumstances. For example, as the lenition of and , is replaced by before back vowels, e.g. ('I would give'), ('drove'). In Munster, becomes after a vowel, e.g. ('twenty'). In Ring, final becomes in monosyllabic words, e.g. ('fear'). In some Ulster varieties, e.g. Tory Island, can be replaced by , e.g. ('not'), be deleted word-finally or before , e.g. ('greedy') and ('seven'). As in English, voiceless stops are aspirated (articulated with a puff of air immediately upon release) at the start of a word, while voiced stops may be incompletely voiced but are never aspirated. Voiceless stops are unaspirated after and (e.g. 'terror'); however, stops remain aspirated after the clitic is (e.g. 'it's crooked'). Several researchers (e.g. , , , , and ) use transcriptions like , etc., indicating they consider the stops that occur after voiceless fricatives to be devoiced allophones of the voiced stops rather than unaspirated allophones of the voiceless stops, but this is a minority view. Fortis and lenis sonorants In Old Irish, the sonorants (those spelled ) were divided not only into broad and slender types, but also into fortis and lenis types. The precise phonetic definition of these terms is somewhat vague, but the coronal fortis sounds (spelled ) were probably longer in duration and may have had a larger area of contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth than the lenis sounds. Fortis was probably a normal , while lenis was a nasalized semivowel , perhaps tending towards a nasalized fricative or when palatalized. By convention, the fortis coronals are transcribed with small capital letters or capital letters , the lenis with lower case (some authors, such as , instead use Latin for fortis and Greek for lenis). Thus Old Irish had four rhotic phonemes , four lateral phonemes , and four coronal nasal phonemes . Fortis and lenis sonorants contrasted with each other between vowels and word-finally after vowels in Old Irish, e.g. ('he shears') vs. ('he may carry'); ('hazel') vs. ('sin'); ('stake') vs. ('sound'). Word-initially, only the fortis sounds were found, but they became lenis in environments where morphosyntactically triggered lenition was found: ('mystery') vs. ('his mystery'), ('provision') vs. ('his provision'). In the modern language, the four rhotics have been reduced to two in all dialects, having merged as . For the laterals and nasals, some dialects have kept all four distinct, while others have reduced them to three or two distinct phonemes, as summarized in the following table. As for fortis and lenis , in time the lenis version (nasalized semivowel or labial fricative) came to be pronounced as a regular semivowel or fricative along with nasalization of the preceding vowel. The later loss of between vowels has resulted in phonemically nasalized vowels in some modern dialects (see below), but these are not robustly maintained in any dialect; the strong tendency is to eliminate the nasalization entirely. The original nasalized semivowel is still reflected as in the spelling, however. ==Vowels==

The vowel sounds vary from dialect to dialect, but in general Connacht and Munster at least agree in having the monophthongs , , , , , , , , , , and schwa (), which is found only in unstressed syllables; and the diphthongs , , , and . The vowels of Ulster Irish are more divergent and are not discussed in this article. Vowel backness The backness of vowels (that is, the horizontal position of the highest point of the tongue) depends to a great extent on the quality (broad or slender) of adjacent consonants. Some researchers (e.g. , , ) have argued that and are actually allophones of the same phoneme, as are and , as in a vertical vowel system. Under this view, these phonemes are not marked at an abstract level as either front vowels or back vowels. Rather, they acquire a specification for frontness or backness from the consonants around them. In this article, however, the more traditional assumption that are four distinct phonemes will be followed. The descriptions of the allophones in this section come from ; the pronunciations therefore reflect the Munster accent of the Dingle Peninsula. Unless otherwise noted, however, they largely hold for other Munster and Connacht accents as well. Close vowels The four close vowel phonemes of Irish are the fully close and , and the near-close and . Their exact pronunciation depends on the quality of the surrounding consonants. is realized as a front between two slender consonants (e.g. 'country'). Between a slender and a broad consonant, the tongue is retracted slightly from this position (for which the IPA symbol is ), e.g. ('sale'), ('berry' gen.). Between two broad consonants, the tongue is retracted even further, almost to the point of being a central vowel (in IPA, ): ('sheep'). is a fully back between broad consonants (e.g. 'fort'), but between a broad and a slender consonant, the tongue is somewhat advanced (IPA ), e.g. ('three people'), ('eye'). Between two slender consonants, it is advanced even further, to a centralized vowel (IPA ): ('quiet'). The near-close vowels and show a similar pattern. is realized between slender consonants as a front , e.g. ('house' dat.). After a slender consonant and before a broad one, it is a near-front , e.g. ('piece'). After a broad consonant and before a slender one, it is a more retracted , e.g. ('understands'). Finally, between two broad consonants it is a central , e.g. ('salty'). is a near-back when all adjacent consonants are broad, e.g. ('black'), and a more centralized after a slender consonant, e.g. ('rag'). Mid vowels The realization of the long close-mid vowels and varies according to the quality of the surrounding consonants. is a front between two slender consonants (e.g. 'yell'), a centralized between a broad and a slender consonant (e.g. 'call'), and a more open centralized between two broad consonants (e.g. 'danger'). ranges from a back between two broad consonants (e.g. 'turf') to an advanced between a broad and a slender consonant (e.g. 'turf' [gen.]) to a centralized between two slender consonants (e.g. 'music' [gen.]). The short open-mid vowels also vary depending on their environment. Short ranges from a front between slender consonants (e.g. 'will be') to a retracted between a broad and a slender consonant (e.g. 'I will be', 'was') to a central when the only adjacent consonant is broad (e.g. 'cross' [dat.]). Short between two broad consonants is usually a back , e.g. ('stone'), but it is a centralized adjacent to nasal consonants and labial consonants, e.g. ('there') and ('soft'). Between a broad and a slender consonant, it is a more open : ('school'), ('drink'). Schwa Unstressed is realized as a near-close, near-front when adjacent to a palatal consonant, e.g. ('pike'). Next to other slender consonants, it is a mid-centralized , e.g. ('salt water'). Adjacent to broad consonants, it is usually a mid central , e.g. ('information'), but when the preceding syllable contains one of the close back vowels , it is realized as a mid-centralized back , e.g. ('closing'), ('pigs'). Open vowels The realization of the open vowels varies according to the quality of the surrounding consonants; there is a significant difference between Munster dialects and Connacht dialects as well. In Munster, long and short have approximately the same range of realization: both vowels are relatively back in contact with broad consonants and relatively front in contact with slender consonants. Specifically, long in word-initial position and after broad consonants is a back , e.g. ('place'), ('beach'). Between a slender and a broad consonant, it is a retracted front , e.g. ('will cut'), while between two slender consonants it is a fully front , e.g. ('John' voc.). In Dingle, the back allophone is rounded to after broad labials, e.g. ('white'), while in Ring, County Waterford, rounded is the usual realization of in all contexts except between slender consonants, where it is a centralized . Short between two slender consonants is a front , as in ('short'). Between a broad and a slender consonant, it is in most cases a retracted , e.g. ('man'), and ('worn'), but after broad labials and it is a centralized front , e.g. ('town'), ('injure'). When it is adjacent only to broad consonants, it is a centralized back , e.g. ('son'), ('say'). In Connacht varieties, the allophones of short are consistently further front than the allophones of long . In Erris, for example, short ranges from a near-open front vowel before slender consonants (e.g. 'earwax') to an open after slender consonants (e.g. 'bright') to a centralized back between broad consonants (e.g. 'horse'). Long , on the other hand, ranges from a back between broad consonants (e.g. 'boat') to an advanced back before slender consonants (e.g. 'to get') to a centralized back after slender consonants (e.g. 'fine'). In Toormakeady, the back allophone is rounded to after broad labials, e.g. ('white'). In Connemara, the allophones of are lengthened in duration, so that only vowel quality distinguishes the allophones of from those of . Diphthongs The starting point of ranges from a near-open central after broad consonants to an open-mid centralized front after slender consonants, and its end point ranges from a near-close near-front before slender consonants to a centralized before broad consonants. Examples include ('rogue'), ('dog'), ('church'), and ('cure'). The starting point of ranges from a near-open central after broad consonants to an open-mid advanced central after slender consonants, and its end point ranges from a near-close near-back before broad consonants to a centralized before slender consonants. Examples include ('deaf'), ('improvement'), ('speak'), and ('memory'). In West Muskerry and the Dingle Peninsula, however, the starting point of is rounded and further back after broad consonants, e.g. ('goat'). The starting point of ranges from a close front after slender consonants to a retracted after word-initial broad (the only context in which it appears after a broad consonant). Its end point ranges from a mid central before broad consonants to a close-mid centralized front before slender consonants. Examples include ('sense'), ('ever'), and ('devils'). The starting point of is consistently a close back while the end point ranges from to : ('above'), ('lamb'), ('strike'). Nasalized vowels In general, vowels in Irish are nasalized when adjacent to nasal consonants. For some speakers, there are reported to be minimal pairs between nasal vowels and oral vowels, indicating that nasal vowels are also separate phonemes; these generally result from an earlier nasalized semivowel (historically the lenited version of ), that has since been lost. However, the contrast is not robust in any dialect; most published descriptions say that contrastively nasal vowels are present in the speech of only some (usually older) speakers. Potential minimal pairs include those shown in the table below. In addition, where a vowel is nasalized because it is adjacent to a nasal consonant, it often retains its nasalization in related forms where the consonant is no longer nasal. For example, the nasal of ('mother') is replaced by nonnasal in the phrase ('his mother'), but the vowel remains nasalized. Similarly, in ('snow') the vowel after the is nasalized, while in ('the snow' gen.), the is replaced by in some northern dialects, but the nasalized vowel remains. ==Phonotactics==

The most notable aspects of Irish phonotactics revolve around the behaviour of consonant clusters. Here it is important to distinguish between clusters that occur at the beginnings of words and those that occur after vowels, although there is overlap between the two groups. Word-initial consonant clusters Irish words can begin with clusters of two or three consonants. In general, all the consonants in a cluster agree in their quality, i.e. either all are broad or all are slender. Two-consonant clusters consist of an obstruent consonant followed by a liquid or nasal consonant (however, labial obstruents may not be followed by a nasal); examples (from ) include ('milking'), ('fine'), ('button'), ('law'), ('usual'), ('idiot'), ('slice'), ('snow'), ('poker'), and ('long for'). In addition, and may be followed by a voiceless stop, as in ('purse') and ('story'). Further, the cluster occurs in the word ('women') and a few forms related to it. Three-consonant clusters consist of or plus a voiceless stop plus a liquid. Examples include ('rumpus'), ('scream'), ('flash'), ('fun'), and ('streak'). One exception to quality agreement is that broad is found before slender labials (and for some speakers in Connemara and Dingle before as well). Examples include: ('berries'), ('scythe'), ('dependent'), ('inspire'), and ('story'). In the environment of an initial consonant mutation, there is a much wider range of possible onset clusters; for example, in a lenition environment the following occur: ('tasted'), ('broke'), ('practiced'), ('bent'), ('stuck'), ('acted'), ('slipped'), ('swam'), ('reached'). In an eclipsis environment, the following are found: ('flower'), ('years'), ('you would break'), ('warp'), ('bridge'), ('ladder'), ('you would dress'), ('you would leave'), ('you would act'). In Donegal, Mayo, and Connemara dialects (but not usually on the Aran Islands), the coronal nasals can follow only respectively in a word-initial cluster. After other consonants, they are replaced by : ('hill'), ('women'), ('liking'), ('long for'). Under lenition, become as expected in these dialects, but after the definite article an they become : ('snow'), ('snow' [lenited form]), ('the snow' gen.). Post-vocalic consonant clusters and epenthesis Like word-initial consonant clusters, post-vocalic consonant clusters usually agree in broad or slender quality. The only exception here is that broad , not slender , appears before the slender coronals : ('two people'), ('trade'), ('doors'), ('handle'), ('advice'). A cluster of , , or followed by a labial or dorsal consonant (except the voiceless stops , ) is broken up by an epenthetic vowel : ('abrupt'), ('blue'), ('mistake'), ('certain'), ('service'), ('anger'), ('dark'), ('bold'), ('dove'), ('pleasant'), ('sparrow'), ('venom'), , (a name for Ireland), ('name'), ('mind'), ('animal'). There is no epenthesis, however, if the vowel preceding the cluster is long or a diphthong: ('wrinkle'), ('term'), ('insight'), ('duty'). There is also no epenthesis into words that are at least three syllables long: ('firmament'), ('throat'), ('dandelion'), ('Carmelite'). ==Phonological processes==

Vowel-initial words Vowel-initial words in Irish exhibit behaviour that has led linguists to suggest that the vowel sound they begin with on the surface is not actually the first sound in the word at a more abstract level. Specifically, when a clitic ending in a consonant precedes a word beginning with the vowel, the consonant of the clitic surfaces as either broad or slender, depending on the specific word in question. For example, the of the definite article ('the') is slender before the word ('wonder') but broad before the word ('age'): ('the wonder' gen.) vs. ('the age'). One analysis of these facts is that vowel-initial words actually begin, at an abstract level of representation, with a kind of "empty" consonant that consists of nothing except the information "broad" or "slender". Another analysis is that vowel-initial words, again at an abstract level, all begin with one of two semivowels, one triggering palatalization and the other triggering velarization of a preceding consonant. Lengthening before fortis sonorants Where reflexes of the Old Irish fortis sonorants appear in syllable-final position (in some cases, only in word-final position), they trigger a lengthening or diphthongization of the preceding vowel in most dialects of Irish. The details vary from dialect to dialect. In Donegal and Mayo, lengthening is found only before , before (except when a vowel follows), and in a few words also before word-final , e.g. ('top'), ('tall'), ('inch'), ('spinning wheel'), ('yonder'). In Connemara, the Aran Islands, and Munster, lengthening is found generally not only in the environments listed above, but also before (unless a vowel follows) and before word-final . For example, the word ('hole') is pronounced in all of these regions, while ('grip') is pronounced in Connemara and Aran and in Munster. Because vowels behave differently before broad sonorants than before slender ones in many cases, and because there is generally no lengthening (except by analogy) when the sonorants are followed by a vowel, there is a variety of vowel alternations between different related word-forms. For example, in Dingle ('head') is pronounced with a diphthong, but (the genitive singular of the same word) is pronounced with a long vowel, while (the plural, meaning 'heads') is pronounced with a short vowel. This lengthening has received a number of different explanations within the context of theoretical phonology. All accounts agree that some property of the fortis sonorant is being transferred to the preceding vowel, but the details about what property that is vary from researcher to researcher. argue that the fortis sonorant is tense (a term only vaguely defined phonetically) and that this tenseness is transferred to the vowel, where it is realized phonetically as vowel length and/or diphthongization. argues that the triggering consonant is underlyingly associated with a unit of syllable weight called a mora; this mora then shifts to the vowel, creating a long vowel or a diphthong. expands on that analysis to argue that the fortis sonorants have an advanced tongue root (that is, the bottom of the tongue is pushed upward during articulation of the consonant) and that diphthongization is an articulatory effect of this tongue movement. Devoicing Where a voiced obstruent or comes into contact with , the is absorbed into the other sound, which then becomes voiceless (in the case of , devoicing is to ). Devoicing is found most prominently in the future of first conjugation verbs (where is spelled ) and in the formation of verbal adjectives (where is spelled ). For example, the verb ('sweep') ends in the voiced consonant , but its future tense ('will sweep') and verbal adjective ('swept') have the voiceless consonant . Sandhi Irish exhibits a number of external sandhi effects, i.e. phonological changes across word boundaries, particularly in rapid speech. The most common type of sandhi in Irish is assimilation, which means that a sound changes its pronunciation in order to become more similar to an adjacent sound. One type of assimilation in Irish is found when a coronal consonant () changes from being broad to being slender before a word that begins with a slender coronal consonant and vice versa. For example, ('deceive') ends with a broad , but in the phrase ('it deceived me'), the has become slender because the following word, , starts with a slender coronal consonant. may also assimilate to the place of articulation of a following consonant, becoming labial before a labial consonant, palatal before a palatal consonant, and velar before a velar consonant. For example, of ('one') becomes in ('a lame one') and in ('a scabbed one'). A voiced consonant at the end of a word may devoice when the next word begins with a voiceless consonant, as in ('he bent'), where of ('bent') became before the voiceless of . ==Stress==

In Irish, words normally have only one stressed syllable (ˈ◌). Outside of Munster this is usually the first syllable of the word, e.g. ('left' [verb]) and ('dishonor'). However, certain words, especially adverbs and loanwords, have stress on a noninitial syllable, e.g. ('only'), ('tobacco'). Compound words In most compound words, there are four possible stress patterns: In most compounds, primary stress falls on the first member and a secondary stress (ˌ◌) falls on the second member, e.g. ('spent bog'). In compounds beginning with , and ('possible'), the prefix takes secondary stress, while the following element takes primary stress, e.g. ('unintelligible'). In compounds beginning with (intensive prefix), ('perpetual'), and , both the prefix and the following syllable take primary stress, e.g. ('very good'). Note that (meaning 'in-, un-') and (meaning 'bio-') follow the group 1 (primary-secondary) stress pattern. The last group () show a mix of: variation between primary-primary and primary-secondary stress, e.g. ('true God') vs. ('spring water') variation between primary-secondary and primary-zero stress, particularly in old compounds now treated as simple words, e.g. ('sorrowful music, lament'), ('lullaby'). variation in stress pattern depending on whether the second element is a noun or adjective, e.g. primary-primary ('bad person') vs. primary-secondary ('bad-mannered'), primary-primary ('Archbishop') vs. primary-secondary ('bad-mannered') Munster In Munster, stress is attracted to a long vowel or diphthong in the second or third syllable of a word, e.g. ('girl'), ('request'). In the now-extinct accent of East Mayo, stress was attracted to a long vowel or diphthong in the same way as in Munster; in addition, stress was attracted to a short vowel before word-final when that word was also final in its utterance. For example, ('horse') was pronounced in isolation or as the last word of a sentence, but as in the middle of a sentence. In Munster, stress is attracted to in the second syllable of a word if it is followed by , provided the first syllable (and third syllable, if there is one) contains a short vowel. Examples include ('lame') and ('chips'). However, if the first or third syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, stress is attracted to that syllable instead, and the before is reduced to as normal, e.g. ('listen'), ('wether'). ==Samples==

The following table shows some sample sentences from the Aran dialect. The first eight chapters of Peadar Ua Laoghaire's autobiography Mo Sgéal Féin at Wikisource include recordings of the text being read by a native speaker of Muskerry (Munster) Irish. ==Comparison with other languages==

Scottish Gaelic and Manx Many of the phonological processes found in Irish are found also in its nearest relatives, Scottish Gaelic and Manx. For example, both languages contrast "broad" and "slender" consonants, but only at the coronal and dorsal places of articulation; both Scottish Gaelic and Manx have lost the distinction in labial consonants. The change of etc. to etc. is found in Manx and most dialects of Scottish Gaelic. Evidence from written manuscripts suggests it had begun in Scottish Gaelic as early as the 16th century and was well established in both Scottish Gaelic and Manx by the late 17th to early 18th century. Lengthening or diphthongization of vowels before fortis sonorants is also found in both languages. The stress pattern of Scottish Gaelic is the same as that in Connacht and Ulster Irish, while in Manx, stress is attracted to long vowels and diphthongs in noninitial syllables, but under more restricted conditions than in Munster. Manx and many dialects of Scottish Gaelic share with Ulster Irish the property of not reducing unstressed to before . Hiberno-English Irish pronunciation has had a significant influence on the features of Hiberno-English. For example, most of the vowels of Hiberno-English (with the exception of ) correspond to vowel phones of Irish. The Irish stops are common realizations of the English phonemes . Hiberno-English also allows where it is permitted in Irish but excluded in other dialects of English, such as before an unstressed vowel (e.g. Haughey ) and at the end of a word (e.g. McGrath ). There is epenthesis in words like film and form . ==See also==